


Falling Out of Love and Into Freedom

by This_Time_I_Wont_Regret_My_Username



Series: A Collection of One-Shots for THC [21]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Divorce, F/M, Falling Out of Love, Ginny & Harry Are Better As Friends, Harry Is Infertile, Never Really In Love Though
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-06
Updated: 2018-01-06
Packaged: 2019-03-01 04:01:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 834
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13286553
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/This_Time_I_Wont_Regret_My_Username/pseuds/This_Time_I_Wont_Regret_My_Username
Summary: Harry can't have children. That shouldn't have been enough to tear his marriage apart, but it was just the final push that they needed. They didn't love each other like they should, they both knew it, but they had just been too scared to say anything.





	Falling Out of Love and Into Freedom

Harry stood next to Ginny, staring out over the balcony to the garden below where Ron and Hermione's kids played. Their giggles and shrieks floated up to the pair, the children not noticing the dark cloud that hung around Harry and Ginny.

"Are you really sure about this, Harry?" Ginny asked, quiet yet firm. They still weren't looking at each other. "My family will miss you."

_My family._

"There was once I time I'd have done anything for your family," Harry said soberly. "But that was a long time ago, Ginny." Ginny nodded in understanding. She already knew what his answer was going to be, he suspected. That's why he fell in love with her.

"I know. I also know that Ron will still think of you as a brother, though. Mum... well, she'll get over it," Ginny said lamely. Harry looked down at the children that played in the garden. He had wanted a family for the longest time. But who knew that being a Horcrux for seventeen years meant you couldn't have kids? That the darkness that you housed made you infertile? Apparently it did.

Harry swallowed against the lump in his throat.

"I'm sorry, Ginny," he whispered. He felt Ginny's stare, but didn't turn to meet it. "I know that you want a family so badly. I'm sorry I can't give it to you." I'm sorry that we don't love each other anymore.

"That's not your fault, Harry," Ginny snapped. "You need to stop blaming yourself for things you can't control."

Harry sighed; he didn't want to get in a fight with her.

"I know. I'm--" he stopped himself from apologizing again. Ginny sighed, knowing what he was going to say before he cut himself off.

"Well, have you got the papers, then?" she asked instead of scolding him like she would've three months ago.

"Yeah," Harry said. He pulled the neatly folded papers out of his pocket and handed them over to his wife without looking at her. He didn't think he could do that. "All you have to do is sign them."

"Got a quill?" she asked absently. Harry conjured one with his wand. "Oh, right. Thanks."

He heard her press the contract to the railing and the quill scratch her signature onto the parchment. "Here," she said after a moment. He glanced over to her and grabbed the quill and paper from her hand.

He put the quill down on the line. He slowly signed his name. If he squinted, it would almost seem like he was back at Hogwarts and filling out his Hogsmeade form again. But he wasn't.

He tucked the papers back into his pocket.

"Well, we can officially start the divorce process, now," Ginny said. She chuckled a little. "Is it wrong to say I'm a little glad?" He was relieved she had voiced it first; he wasn't the only one that felt that way.

He felt a smile form on his face for the first time in weeks.

"Merlin, I thought it was just me," he said lightly. Ginny laughed, and Harry laughed, too.

Even though they both knew that divorce wasn't the easiest thing, they just didn't love each other anymore. Not in the ways that were required for a marriage, anyways.

They hadn't been in love for a long time, Harry's infertility had little to nothing to do with their divorce. It was just the little push Ginny needed to convince herself to agree to it.

Harry didn't think that he and Ginny would've ever had worked things out. They didn't have the kind of love Hermione and Ron had; Molly and Arthur; Bill and Fleur; Fred and Angelina. They didn't endure the endurable. They didn't hope when others did.

They were kids when they met. They didn't know what love was.

Ginny wanted what her parents had had. They had fallen in love at a young age and had babies shortly after that. That's what Ginny thought was supposed to happen.

Harry wanted to sleep next to someone. He wanted to make her breakfast in bed on Mothers' day. He yearned for that.

But Harry and Ginny only fell in love with the idea of each other. A husband and a father. A wife and a mother. They hadn't known that neither of them could be what the other wanted.

He had felt restricted when he lived with Ginny because neither of them wanted to be together but were afraid to say so. They often left at different times of the morning to go to work, without saying goodbye to each other. Harry had been sleeping in the guest room for a year. They hadn't even kissed each other for more months than Harry could count.

And now it was alright, Harry didn't have to think about that anymore. He'd signed those divorce papers. It felt like he was leaving dead weight behind. It felt like he was finally picking up the pieces of his life.

It felt like freedom.

**Author's Note:**

> This was always how I imagined Ginny and Harry's relationship working out in the end, though the epilogue flipped around and told me, "Nope! They're a happy, loving couple! Deal with it!"  
> The prompt was "There was once I time I'd have done anything for your family," [Speech] and the theme was "Love and/or love lost." I'm so happy with this one.  
> Please let me know what you thought of this. Thank you for reading!


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